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Extracts from "LEST YE FORGET"
personal reminiscences of ALFRED MAX SIMON Page 20. "........ and I heard later that I narrowly escaped being christened Alfred Septimus, but it was discovered just in time that by combining the initials of these names with that of my surname I should have been branded a donkey for life, my names were altered to Alfred Max" Pages 18/19. "Nor must I forget to mention the 10th March 1863, the wedding day of the then Prince and Princess of Wales. I was only twelve years of age and had been promised as a great treat that I should accompany my elder brothers to view the illuminations at night in the West End. They had engaged a private omnibus with a party of friends and it was arranged that we should be back home not later than midnight. However, it was four o'clock in the morning before we returned. My poor mother, who was in very delicate health (and died four months later to the day), was sitting in her bedroom by the fireside, prostrate with anxiety for our safety. The fact is, our conveyance was held up by the traffic on Westminster Bridge, where it remained during three hours" Page 19. "I well remember also the garrotting scare of 1861-2, when it was not safe to leave the house after dark. Red Post Hill, the road which separated Herne Hill from Dulwich, was particularly infested with this class of criminal, and numerous outrages occurred" Page 19. "My mother (née Caroline de Paravicini), sister of Baron James Prior de Paravicini of the Stock Exchange, father of the present P.J. and H.F., the cricketers who played against each other in the competing teams of Eton and Harrow in 1878 (when Harrow won by 20 runs), was greatly revered. She passed away at the early age of 44 on the 10th July 1863, leaving ten children to mourn her loss - eight sons and two daughters. When we stood around her grave it was the last occasion on which we all met, for on the very next day my brother, Prior, started for America (the owners of the vessel on which he sailed having detained her several days in order to allow him to attend the funeral), to be followed shortly by Henry who went to New Zealand, and later by others destined for various parts of the world." Page 25. "It is interesting to note how the connection, dating originally from 1830, between my grandfather, father, and Messrs. Moët & Chandon came about. In the ship broking business, Lightly & Simon used to receive small consignments of champagne from Moët & Chandon of Epernay, through the Calais correspondent of the former, for delivery to private consumers in this country." Page 28. "At last, in the year 1835, the English business became so large and difficult to deal with that Moët & Chandon decided to appoint a wholesale agent in London, and the choice lay between Lightly & Simon and their correspondent at Calais, Mr. Spiers, father of my old friend the late Mr. Felix Spiers of Spiers & Pond. In the end, Lightly & Simon were selected. My father consulted his old friend Charles Gassiot (Martinez, Gassiot & Co.), as to the advisability of his accepting the agency, and his reply was "Most certainly, George; I believe champagne has a future before it." I have heard my father say that they made more profit on the delivery of the wine as shipbrokers than they did on the commission they received as agents, but this was more than compensated for by the large increase in the imports. From this period the commerce in champagne grew by leaps and bounds, as is proved by the figures my father left behind him, now in my possession, showing the number of bottles imported every year dating from 1852 until he left the business in 1885. (In 1872 it had reached considerably over 2,000,000 bottles.) Page 111/112/113. "I have never been able to quite understand how I became possessed of a love for racing. It certainly was not innate in me. My father had never attended a race-meeting in his life, nor had my grandfather before him. I must have received my early tuition from my father's old butler, Pattison. He and I used to discuss sporting matters very often. He was a keen Yorkshire man, and knew a good bit about racing. I was early bitten with it, my first "big" bet being £5 each way about "Tomahawk" for the Lincoln Handicap of 1874 at 14 to 1, which he won, and which bet I shared with a friend. My father, like many strictly business men of his time, had an absolute horror of the racecourse, and imagined that anyone who trod thereon must be a "wrong 'un" and could not possibly be otherwise. I remember how shocked he was in the year 1886, not having had a holiday for some time, I begged a fortnight off, which was granted me. On my return to business I was greeted with the remark that my father hoped I had enjoyed my fortnight's racing, about which he had been informed. As a matter of fact, I had had a great time: four days at Ascot, three at Sandown, and finishing up by crossing over by the night service with Fred Archer, who shared my cabin, to Paris to see him ride "Minting" to victory in the Grand Prix. Page 117. I remember shortly after the horses' names had been published in the Racing Calendar seeing Lord Rothschild at New Court when he told me that he had noticed I had named two of my horses "Moët" and "Chandon." "I suppose," added his Lordship with a smile, "you feed them on Champagne." The running of "Moët" and "Chandon" was a huge advertisement for the brand, perhaps the best we ever had...... "Moët" won the Prince of Wales Stakes at the Epsom Spring Meeting of 1908, and afterwards ran in the Derby of that year, subsequently winning one or two minor races." |